The First Deputy Minister of Finance, Giorgi Kakauridze, presented the draft bill at the meeting. The speaker reviewed the impact of the pandemic on the budget, which led to a 6.8% budget cut in 2020. According to him, the economic recession continued in the first quarter of 2021 and the economy actually shrank by 4.1%.

"From the second quarter of last year, the process of restoring the economy of Georgia started. During this period, export/import, VAT-paying enterprise turnovers, financial sector growth, net personal remittances and other economic indicators increased significantly, as a result of which the economic growth in the II quarter of 2021 amounted to 28.9%. Positive trends continued in the second half of last year. In particular, in the third quarter of 2021, the economic growth was 9.1%, in the fourth quarter it was 8.8%, and the annual rate was 10.4%," - the Deputy Minister stated. 

As Giorgi Kakauridze explained, taking the high economic growth rate into account, the preparation of the amendments to be made to the 2022 budget was put on the agenda, which was planned with the forecast of 6% real economic growth, and the forecast of the gross domestic product in nominal terms was GEL 64.8 billion. According to the presented draft bill, the amendments to be made to the 2022 budget are focused on achieving 2 main goals: reducing the budget deficit and government debt, the full financing of the obligations assumed by the state and improving the country's infrastructure.

The speaker spoke in detail about the areas where the state budget allocations increase through the presented draft bill. The Committee supported the approval of the amendments to be made to the 2022 budget.

Giorgi Kakauridze also presented a 6-month review of the implementation of the 2022 state budget of Georgia, which was accepted by the Committee.